The Path Not Taken
by gothicorca1895
Summary: Lady Biming has been receiving letters from a "mysterious nobody" and won't tell anyone who the real sender is. However, when the truth comes out, it may just tear her family apart...forever. Continuation of my current series/sequel to A Great Escape.
1. Prologue

_A/N - Hooray, the sequel to A Great Escape is here! And if you haven't read the other stories in my series before...um, I'm not even going to try to explain what's going on here. But here's your reading order:_

_If No One Will Listen__ and/or White Hot Darkness (optional)  
Redeeming Light (by Cryssy-miu; optional, but recommended)  
__Long Shot  
Keeping a Secret  
A Great Escape _

_Get it, got it, good. Thank you. Now, assuming that you've done your homework and know that you'll understand everything that will happen in this story, may I present to you..._

* * *

_**The Path Not Taken**_

_Prologue_

In China, it is rare to find a village or town comprised of only one single species. Of course, the variety of creatures fluctuates in different areas, depending on the climate and the region and other such factors. But normally, a group of similar animals doesn't just decide that they will all settle down together and allow few, if any, members of other species into their community.

There are exceptions to every rule, of course.

Fai Dong Valley was located in an extremely secluded area of the country. It was surrounded on all sides by a distant eastern mountain range, and almost no one knew that it existed. As a matter of fact, it almost seemed as if its inhabitants were intentionally _trying_ to hide themselves away from the outside world, which would seem foolish. Why on earth would a village want to make more work for itself, forcing its residents to produce everything they needed on their own instead of trading, isolating its denizens from friends or family members who might be living on the outside?

But Fai Dong was no ordinary village. The only people who lived there were pandas. And those pandas had long considered themselves to be a hunted species, which was why they had established a secretive society that allowed them to protect themselves.

Decades ago, the pandas of Fai Dong Valley had been driven from their ancestral home, a village on the outskirts of Gongmen City, by a murderous albino peacock named Lord Shen. Their homes had been razed to the ground, and many of their friends and family hadn't made it out of the raid alive. Those that had survived had been ready to give up hope, but fortunately, they had been shepherded to this safe place by a panda named Sir Cai Baojia, who had since become their leader. Cai was strong-willed but kind-hearted, a commanding yet understanding presence, and he was revered and loved by all of his people. He had guided them before they found this valley and helped with the construction of homes and cultivation of rice paddies after they had arrived. He made sure that any orphaned children were placed with loving foster parents and that families were reunited whenever they picked up survivors who had escaped to somewhere else…and he did all of this despite the fact that he had lost his own family on that terrible night.

The tragic situation was whispered about all around the village. On the night of the raid, Sir Cai's wife had run into the forest with their infant son, and both had disappeared. They had been pursued by wolves, so the outcome of the situation was obvious. No one had ever found the bodies, though. Cai was even more admired for the way he had carried on despite the horrifying adversities of his life, and eventually, he had gotten used to living alone with the ghosts of his family hanging over him…or, at least, as used to it as anyone could ever possibly get.

And then, on an ordinary day about four and a half years ago now, Cai had been looking over the valley from his private gazebo in the cliffs when he had felt…something. For some reason, a realization had suddenly struck him, some confirmation that he couldn't explain. But in that moment, he had known that his son was still alive and out there somewhere. And not a week later, one of the few messengers who was trusted enough to news to Fai Dong alerted him that Lord Shen had been defeated by the Dragon Warrior…and that the Dragon Warrior happened to be a panda.

Since then, Cai had been sending out his personal messenger Tung (a small bird who could observe people and places unnoticed) to try and locate this Dragon Warrior panda. For the past four and a half years, this ceaseless quest had returned no definite results. But today, Cai had the exhilarating sensation that his luck was about to change…

…

The three of them were standing in a sort of triangular formation in the gazebo – Sir Cai was positioned at what would have been the top point, while two birds stood side-by-side in front of him. The small, familiar avian was instantly recognizable as Tung. But Cai didn't know who the goose dressed in oddly colored finery was.

"Are you sure that this goose is trustworthy, Tung?" asked Cai carefully. He was always wary about admitting visitors into Fai Dong. For years he had been concerned that Shen would find out where they were and come back to finish them off, but since the peacock lord's defeat, he had loosened up on the strict "no guests" policy.

"I'm very sure, sir," responded Tung. "Zeng is an old friend of mine. I'm glad that I thought to go talk to him, because he has some information that you might be interested to know…"

Zeng cleared his throat and stepped forward. "S-so, I hear you've been looking for the Dragon Warrior…sir," he added quickly. "I work at the Jade Palace, where the Dragon Warrior lives…"

Cai's eyes seemed to spark. "And is this Dragon Warrior a panda, as all the rumors say?"

"Yes, sir. His name is Po…"

"Hmm." Cai rubbed his chin thoughtfully, though his heart was pounding and his eyes were still shining hopefully. The only way to tell for sure whether or not this Po was actually his son would be to meet him; he hadn't been holding out much hope that the boy would still be going by "Bao Yu" after either being in an orphanage or adopted by someone else. And even if the Dragon Warrior wasn't his son, it was always an exciting experience to find that another panda was alive. "Interesting. What else do you know about the Dragon Warrior, Zeng?"

"Well, sir," piped up Tung, "this is where things get very…ah...intriguing. C-could you please remind me…what your wife's name was?"

Cai's face darkened slightly, and Tung flinched. He knew that Sir Cai didn't like to talk about his beloved wife now that she had met her untimely demise. Tung had only heard the woman's name once or twice before, and he thought he remembered it, but he needed to make sure…

"Her name was Biming," answered Cai tonelessly, trying to keep his voice even. "Lady Biming, if you want her honorific, as well. Why is that important?"

Tung and Zeng exchanged a stupefied glance.

"There's also a female panda who lives at the Jade Palace," Zeng finally managed. "An older woman…and her name is Lady Biming."

Cai's pale green eyes widened, and he turned away abruptly.

"That's a coincidence," he said thickly.

"Are you so sure about that?" challenged Tung. "Tell him more, Zeng…"

"She has green eyes and she always wears her hair in a bun," recited Zeng. "Her hair is gray, although that might just be from age. She's a healer, and she used to live in a village outside of Gongmen City, where she worked tending to the heir of the Royal Peacocks. And…the Dragon Warrior is her son."

Cai didn't say anything.

"Doesn't that sound like your wife, sir?" Tung pressed ahead hopefully.

Cai still remained silent. He had his back turned towards them, so all they could see was his embroidered green shawl rippling as his shoulders heaved with deep breaths. They were unable to see his face to tell if he was upset, if he was angry, if he thought that this was some sort of cruel joke that his most loyal servant had decided to play on him for some reason…or if he truly believed what they were telling him, and was merely having a hard time trying to process the sudden shock of it all.

Then, without warning, he made a beeline for the steep staircase that led down from the gazebo. His fist was clutching the shawl together tightly, and his lips were pressed together into a straight, severe line. His eyes were set into what appeared to be an expression of determination.

"S-sir!" cried Tung, pushing off into the air in order to follow his master, afraid that he had upset him. "W-where are you going?"

Cai didn't turn around, continuing to stare straight ahead as tears pricked the corners of his eyes. "I am going to write a letter."

…

Many days and many miles later, Lady Biming was standing in front of the entrance to the Jade Palace, at the top of the thousand steps. Zeng had just handed her a scroll and told her who it was from, a name that she had heard perfectly and yet somehow hadn't comprehended completely, no matter how many time she wrapped her lips around it silently and repeated it in her head. She kept thinking that the messenger goose had to be mistaken, because the location he said he'd just come from was so far-fetched that she had never even imagined it…

"What?" she said at last, so shocked that her voice only held the faintest hint of curiosity. "I'm sorry, Zeng…who did you say it was from?"

* * *

_A/N - Yes, I'm doing my take on the non-sequitor at the end of KFP2. DON'T JUDGE ME. Now you know why the story will mostly be about Po and Lady Biming...but all you A Great Escape fans have nothing to fear, because Shen and Lanying will indeed pop up in this. (Come on, it's like, physically impossible for me to write a story that doesn't have Shen in it.)_

_Also, this story is going to be long, and I mean, LONG. After the prologue, there will be Part I, Part II, and Part III, which is something I've not yet done in a KFP fic. This prologue is probably shorter than most of the other chapters are going to be, too. Anyway, I would greatly appreciate some reviews, and I hope that everyone enjoys this!_


	2. Part 1 Chapter 1

_**The Path Not Taken**_

**Part I: The Mysterious Nobody**

_Chapter 1: Return and an announcement_

"All right, show me what you've got in one…two…three – _ouch_! Hey, I wasn't ready!"

Po could remember a time, less than five years ago, when his adoptive younger sister Kurisu hadn't been able to hold her own during training for even five minutes at a time. All of the masters would take it easy on her if they were told to spar with her, which she of course took offense to; her kicks and punches were almost completely ineffective; and she was so easily distracted that meditation was out of the question. But ever since Shen had come to the Jade Palace, her skills had been improving more and more as she picked up as many techniques as she could from the peacock. Now, as he stood in front of the training hall having one last evening spar with her in the fading daylight, he couldn't help but be proud of how far she had progressed.

Even if she was using her newfound expertise to kick him in the stomach prematurely.

Kurisu giggled and shifted back into stance. "Sorry, big brother, I couldn't resist. Your belly was just such a perfect target!"

Po rolled his eyes. Kurisu was eleven years old now, but still not much more mature than she had been at seven, when Mr. Ping had first adopted her. "Yeah, yeah. Why don't you let me finish counting so that we can spar for real this time?"

She giggled again. "Okay."

Giving the sore spot on his stomach one last rub, he returned to the stance he had been in before the interruption. Even if she was being annoying, he had to admit that it was nice to be out here fooling around with her. He'd been spending a lot of time with her over the past few weeks, since her usual playmate, Shen, had gone off on a "special mission" to Gongmen City. The soothsayer and Xun had gone, too. Kurisu hadn't been happy about it, but she had been finding out that her brother was just as entertaining to be around, and she hadn't complained too much since Shen's initial departure. Po was glad of it. She could be cute when she was causing mischief, but when she was whining, it was just nerve-grating beyond belief.

"All right, let's try this again. One…two…thr – "

"_Shen_!" Kurisu screamed, suddenly and gleefully, and she had bolted down the stairs before he even had time to blink.

"Wha – Kurisu, wait!" Po cried, scrambling after his sister. He knew that he'd get in a colossal amount of trouble with Master Shifu (as well as his dad) if he let Kurisu leave the palace unattended. Fortunately, once he got down a couple of steps, he saw that she hadn't gone far. Standing in a small congregation near the top of the stairs were Xun, the soothsayer, and of course Shen, their bags resting on the ground around them. Kurisu had promptly flung herself at Shen, and now he had scooped her into his wings, smirking and rolling his eyes good-naturedly as she nuzzled against him.

"Yes, itty bitty kitty, I missed you too," he said. "And I'm glad that you're showing your affection by almost knocking me down a flight of stairs."

Kurisu laughed tearfully, and Po smiled a bit. He knew that she was rather emotional, prone to crying when people left for a while as well as when they came back, but seeing her cry still made him rather uncomfortable. But he was sure that in five minutes' time she'd be back to her normal hyperactive, happy-go-lucky self, her face not revealing even a trace of tears.

"Hey, peacock," he greeted Shen mildly.

"Hello, panda," Shen responded, lifting his head and effortlessly making eye contact.

A simple gesture like looking someone in the eye probably wouldn't have seemed like a big deal for most people, but for Shen and Po, it was a relatively recent development. Of course, if for anyone who knew their history, that wasn't a surprise. Po had been born in a panda village, where he'd lived peacefully with his biological parents until a young and insane Lord Shen had instigated a massacre, burning the rural community to the ground and killing every panda he'd been able to get his hands on…well, almost every panda.

Po's mother, Biming, had run into the forest with her cub in her arms, trying to escape the vicious wolves of Shen's army. Unable to outrun them, she had been forced to leave her son in a radish basket while she drew their pursuers away from him. When Po had first remembered this, he had assumed that this meant that his mother had sacrificed herself for him…which wasn't quite accurate, because she hadn't died that night. Shen had spared her. After all, she had been his healer when he was a child, and her medicines had saved his life on multiple occasions. She'd likely given him more attention than his own parents had. So Biming had lived through that terrible night, but she'd also been separated from her son and lost her entire village. She wouldn't find Po again until twenty-three years later.

Po had first learned about the raid on his home village about four and a half years ago, during a trip to Gongmen City. An old soothsayer had brought him to the ruins of his former house, and she had guided him so that he could remember his past. Before then, he hadn't known anything about where he'd come from, who his biological parents were, or how Shen was related to his history…and he was still a long way from knowing anything else about the peacock, like how the soothsayer had once been Shen's nanny, or how Shen and the head of his wolf army, Xun, had been best friends since the two of them were five, or how Shen's parents had been misguided and neglectful throughout his entire life. All Po had known was that Shen was an evil villain with an evil weapon, and he wanted to take over China and obliterate kung fu. So Po and the Five had defeated him. Success!

Well, not exactly. Shen had been _defeated_, yes, but not _killed_. The soothsayer had pulled him out of the harbor and tended to his wounds, all while trying to make him see the error of his ways. But it was no use. All Shen had done during his long recovery process was plan his revenge on the warriors who had taken everything from him. At last, when he had healed sufficiently, he'd rounded up the few sparse wolves and gorilla guards who were still serving him and headed off to the Jade Palace.

That was how he had first met Kurisu.

Shen was lugging his bags up the last few stairs now, smiling as Kurisu chattered, "I'm so glad you're back! A whole lot of stuff happened when you were gone! There were these bandits and Master Shifu let me go down with Po n' the Five to help fight 'em, and I got to do the Feet of Fury and I kicked one of 'em right in the face! It was SO AWESOME! You have to tell me about the exciting stuff that you did when you were gone, Shen!"

"Oh, it was exciting, all right," snorted Xun. "Way more exciting than it was supposed to be."

The soothsayer reached the top of the stairs and tapped her cane against the ground. "Kurisu, aren't you going to come say hello to your old Nana?" asked the elderly goat, smiling knowingly, and the kitten obediently scampered into her arms.

Po sometimes wondered how different his life would be right now if the soothsayer hadn't begun to instigate the bond between Shen and Kurisu. When Shen had arrived at the Jade Palace in order to carry out his revenge, he'd spotted a young Russian Blue kitten wandering the halls, and he'd realized how easy it would be to kidnap her and hold her for ransom. So he'd done just that, leaving a note for the Jade Palace warriors that said that he would kill his hostage if they didn't comply with his demands. With that, he'd dragged Kurisu back to his hiding place, the abandoned Dao-ming Temple on the outskirts of Gongmen City. That was where the soothsayer had predicted that Shen would never find happiness unless he learned to care about someone more than himself, and to learn how to show compassion.

It seemed as if that very thing had eventually happened, because when Po, Master Shifu, and the Furious Five had arrived at Dao-ming, they had found that Shen seemed to have undergone a stunning change in demeanor. He wasn't perfect, of course (actually, for a while after that, he seemed rather depressive) but he certainly wasn't acting evilly, and he hadn't treated Kurisu harshly at all. In fact, he probably would have handed her back to her family peacefully were it not for the fact that a mob broke into Dao-ming shortly after the warriors' arrival, intent on punishing the former warlord peacock for his crimes against the city. Fortunately, everyone had made it out alive, and they'd headed back to the Valley of Peace together in a ragtag, patchwork group. Shen was permitted to stay at the Jade Palace for a while, but the arrangement was supposed to be only temporary; the change of plan had occurred over time, and now Shen was there for good. Po was fine with that. He and Shen weren't exactly friends, but they were used to having one another around now, and they didn't hate each other.

Plus, if it wasn't for Shen, then Po never would have found out that his mother was alive, and Kurisu might have felt like an outcast among her fellow warriors forever. Shen actually was capable of doing good things. In fact, the only reason why he'd been in Gongmen City for the past few weeks was because he had been hired by the Masters Council to improve the city's defenses against outside attack. Now that he wasn't psychotic anymore, he knew what he was doing.

He seemed a little…_spacey_ right now, though. Even as Kurisu continued to babble at him excitedly, all he did was give her a slightly vacant smile. There seemed to be something else on his mind, but based on his disposition, it was a _good_ something else. Po couldn't help but wonder…

"So, what exactly happened during your trip, peacock?" he asked nonchalantly.

Shen looked up, smirking slightly. "Gather everyone up for me," he responded, "and I'll tell you."

…

Biming stood up slowly, her jade-colored eyes roaming over the words of the letter for what felt like the twentieth time. It was the third letter that she had received, and she was still unable to believe that this was really happening to her. The whole situation felt like a too-good-to-be-true dream that would end at any moment…

"Hey, Mom!"

She flinched slightly, immediately hurrying over to her dresser and cramming the scroll into the top drawer, alongside its two predecessors. Fortunately, her slight bout of alarm had worn off by the time her son appeared at the doorway to her room.

"Mom," Po repeated, "Shen just got home."

"Did he?" Biming managed to keep her voice level and pleasant as she pushed the dresser drawer shut. Po had no reason to suspect anything about its contents…not yet, anyway.

"Yeah, and he says he has an announcement. He's getting everyone together in the kitchen…"

"Oh? Well, tell him I'll be there in just a moment." Po nodded and hurried off, and she reached up to tighten her bun, hoping that her frazzled emotions didn't reflect in her appearance.

She was spending too much time worrying about how she would tell Po that his biological father was alive. When she'd finished reading and re-reading that first letter, she'd been about to rush off and tell him instantly when she realized how much trouble that would cause. After all, she wasn't her son's only parent. She hadn't raised him – that particular job had been taken over by his adoptive father, Mr. Ping. And while Mr. Ping was one of her dearest friends now, she remembered how when she had first met him, he'd been extremely nervous that she would replace him in Po's heart. That hadn't happened of course, but she didn't even want to think of how threatened and superfluous Mr. Ping would feel when he learned that _both_ of his adopted son's parents were alive.

Po and Mr. Ping had a strong, touching relationship, but Biming knew that it was quite capable of being strained…especially when it came to the tenuous subject matter of Po's origins. If she just came out and declared that her husband was alive, she could cause a rift between them that might never completely seal, and that was the last thing that she wanted to do. When she figured out a tasteful way to say it, then she would come out and tell the truth.

But for now, that could wait. Shen was home after several weeks of work in Gongmen City, and she did want to check on him, since he'd been suffering from panic attacks and shattered nerves shortly before leaving. Hopefully the change of scenery had sorted him out.

All of the other Jade Palace residents had already gathered in the kitchen by the time she squeezed her way in. It was relatively noisy in there, not at all unlike the sounds of chatter that filled the air during mealtimes. Monkey and Mantis were asking Xun what Gongmen City looked like after all these years, Master Shifu was exchanging pleasantries with the soothsayer about the trip, and Shen was sitting atop the counter as if he was the king of the kitchen, while Kurisu had settled happily in his lap.

"Welcome back, Shen," Biming greeted him as she made her way over to him.

He smiled at her. "Thank you, Lady Biming. I'm very glad to be home."

"Did you have any more panic attacks while you were away?"

"Yes, actually, I had one."

She frowned; that hadn't been the response she was expecting. She truly had believed that he'd be fine after a few days of travelling and hard work and being in his element once again as he designed the defenses. "Oh. Well, were you all right other than that?"

"I suppose I was. Except for the part where somebody tried to kill me."

Now she was _totally_ taken aback. Her brows arched upwards questioningly. "Someone tried to kill you? Whatever for?"

He smirked. "Well, that's part of the story. And if you could get everyone to settle down so that I could tell it, I'd greatly appreciate it."

She rolled her eyes good-naturedly. As if she owed Shen anything that would make her inclined to do mindless favors for him; if anything, he was indebted to her. "Do it yourself."

He rolled his eyes right back at her and leaned forward. "All right, everyone, listen up please!" he shouted, his voice perfectly pitched to rise above the din.

The side conversations tapered down into silence, and Shen nodded to himself, leaning back a bit. "Thank you. Now, I asked you all to come here so that I could tell everyone about my trip while you're all together…otherwise someone different will be asking me about it once every five minutes. It was an exciting trip, to be sure. But before I begin, I have one very important announcement…" He cleared his throat. "I am now engaged to be married."

This drew the same reaction from everyone, and a chorus of voice filled the air, all crying out a single word together:

"_What?_"

"You're getting _married_?" exclaimed Po. "To _who_?"

"How did you get a girl from Gongmen to look at you without running away?" demanded Mantis.

"You're _engaged_?" Crane repeated, his jaw dropping open. "To a real woman?"

Shen's crest bristled indignantly. "Yes, to a _real woman_! What, do you think I'd get engaged to a _fake_ woman?"

Crane looked away self-consciously. "It never hurts to ask…"

The only two people who weren't shocked by this news were the soothsayer and Xun. Clearly, they had been around during…whatever events had transpired that led to Shen becoming engaged. Biming was still trying to get that idea through her head. Shen was _engaged_? He had a hard enough time dealing with his own emotional instabilities! The last thing he needed was to add a girl into the equation!

But she was too polite to say that in front of everyone, so all the only question she asked was, "What's her name?"

"You mean, what's the name of my fiancée?" Shen turned to look at her, and she spotted a distinctly dreamy quality to his eyes. "Her name is Lanying Xifeng."

"Lanying Xifeng, hmm?" Biming didn't recognize the family name, but then again, the last time she'd been in Gongmen had been nearly twenty-five years ago. People were bound to have come and gone since then.

"What does she look like?" Viper wanted to know.

Shen's eyebrows creased thoughtfully. "I have a picture of her…Xun, will you hand me my bag, please?"

Xun reached down to the floor beside his chair and passed a leather satchel to Shen. Biming caught a stifled eye roll and a mutter of "_Lover-boy_" as he did so, and realized that Xun wasn't exactly happy about his best friend's engagement. Then again, considering the wolf's maturity level, she was surprised that he wasn't still under the impression that girls had cooties.

Shen rummaged around in the bag, finally producing what appeared to be an ordinary painter's scroll. "This is her self-portrait," he announced, unfurling it dramatically. Everyone who hadn't seen this Lanying Xifeng before crowded around for what seemed to be a special sneak preview.

The portrait had definitely had significant work put into it; Biming's green eyes trained on the labored brush strokes, all coming together to form the image of a young-looking, colorful peahen. She had a partial crest consisting of four long head feathers, and there was a purple stripe around her neck that almost looked like a collar. In the picture, she appeared to be standing or sitting beside a window, looking out of it longingly at whatever lay beyond. It was quite good, but what struck Biming the most was that the artist hadn't portrayed the subject as being a particularly pretty or lively woman. If anything, the tone of the scene was bleak and somber.

"It's a self-portrait, you said?" she confirmed. "So this Miss Xifeng is an artist?"

Shen nodded. "She's very talented, isn't she?" He stared off into space wistfully.

Biming raised an eyebrow at him knowingly. There was no doubt about it: Shen was caught up in a bout of lovesickness, the sort of dreamy euphoria that often hits people during the first days and weeks of a new relationship. Whatever Miss Xifeng might be like, he was clearly head-over-heels for her. And that self-portrait suggested that she didn't exactly have a normal perception of herself…low self-image, maybe? Or parental problems? She and Shen could have fallen in with each other through commiserating.

"Is this going to be a long-distance relationship? Where is she now?" challenged Tigress.

"I got her a room in the traveler's house down in the Valley. She's going to stay there until we can make further arrangements," responded Shen. "She was worn out from the journey, but I'll bring her up here to meet everyone tomorrow."

"Shen with a fiancée…" Mantis shook his head in bewilderment. "Man, I'll believe it when I see it."

Biming realized that Kurisu had been quiet all this time…which was odd, because the kitten's shrill voice was so often heard echoing down the halls of the palace. Kurisu was staring up at Shen with a near-frozen expression of shock and mild concern. Of course, she was just beginning to figure out that from now on, she wouldn't be the only object of Shen's affections…

"Well, it all has to do with what happened while I was in Gongmen." Shen's eyes swept around the room, and he settled in, looking eager to begin his story. "You see, the first night we arrived, the Masters Council told me that they were expecting me to make them cannons…"

* * *

_A/N - Those of you who are especially perceptive may notice that the time intervals here are slightly different than they were in my previous stories. I decided that I wanted Shen's time spent in banishment to be 20 years instead of 30. There's actually conflict among the official sources of exactly how long it was; in the film, Shen says "thirty years I have waited for this moment," but that doesn't necessarily mean he was banished for thirty years, while on the website, it says twenty. I ultimately decided to go with 20 for reasons pertaining to the plot and the characters being 10 years younger and such._

_Anyway, thanks for the reviews on the prologue, and keep it up!_


	3. Part 1 Chapter 2

_**The Path Not Taken**_

**Part I: The Mysterious Nobody**

_Chapter 2: Need to know_

Shen hadn't been lying when he'd said that his story was an exciting one. He told it earnestly, seeming rather smugly pleased that he could put himself in the hero role this time. He regaled them with the tales of how he had bravely forced himself to overcome the onslaught of memories in order to create defenses that would protect Gongmen City from evildoers, before introducing the twisted, villainous pair of Lady Xuilan and her bodyguard Ming. He explained how he had been introduced to the political advisors Jie and Yue Xifeng and concocted a plan to help their maligned daughter Lanying, and how he had eventually fallen in love with her, only to have an unexpected truth rip their newfound union apart. His account came to an exciting climax with Xuilan's attempted assassination attempt on him, after which he'd had to try and defeat the evil woman while also saving Lanying from both the clutches of Ming and the throes of a panic attack. When he was done, he got a full minute of appreciative applause, during which he bowed and looked rather self-assured.

"Well, I really wanna meet this girl now!" declared Mantis.

"Yeah," added Po. "She needs to see that Shen isn't the only hero around here!"

"I'll bring her up first thing tomorrow morning," promised Shen. Then he blinked, stifling a yawn for a moment. "Now, it's rather late, isn't it? I'm fairly worn out from the journey, so if you'll excuse me…"

The other warriors all allowed Shen to retreat to his room without protest. A few of them filed out of the kitchen. Xun and Kurisu had identical expressions on their faces: both were glowering, glaring into the empty air, and probably for the same reason, too. But after a few minutes, everyone had left the room, either to wind down with some nightly meditations or to finish up with a few odds and ends before bed...everyone except Lady Biming and the soothsayer, that is.

The soothsayer turned to Biming with a knowing glint in her eye, gripping her walking stick as if it were a bejeweled scepter. "Well, now that we're finally alone," she stated, "I think it's time we discussed the fact that Shen's not the only one who had something exciting happen to him."

Biming lowered herself into one of the vacated chairs. "You've got that right," she submitted.

"So it's true, then?" The soothsayer leaned forward eagerly. "You got a letter from…your husband?"

"Yes, I did."

The old goat clapped both hooves over her mouth, but the huge smile still peeked through. Biming couldn't help but smile as well, despite the trepidation creeping up on her once again. "Oh, Biming, _congratulations_! I'm so happy for you! So, tell me, how did your son react when you told him?"

"Um…" Biming's green eyes dropped to the floor shamefacedly. "Well, I haven't exactly…told him yet…"

The soothsayer's grin began to slip away. "What? Why on earth wouldn't you? After all, now you know that his father is – "

" – down in the Valley, working hard in his noodle shop, like always," finished Biming. "And we wouldn't want to upset the fragile order of things, now would we?"

"Oh, so that's what this is about." The soothsayer thumped her walking stick against the ground slightly, as if she was giving stern, motherly advice to Shen or Xun instead of conversing with her old friend. "You do understand that waiting will only make that problem worse, don't you? After all, that's how Shen got in trouble with Miss Xifeng. He waited for so long to tell her the truth that…"

"I know, I know," sighed Biming. "Honestly, I'm not that much younger than you, Min Yun. You don't need to lecture me as if I'm a child. I just…I don't have the heart to tear my son and Mr. Ping apart. It was bad enough for poor Mr. Ping when I first arrived here. And he's my friend, the last thing I want to do is make him feel unnecessary…"

"You won't. Honestly, who says that we have to stick to traditional structures? In _this_ family?" The soothsayer spread her arms. "I'm the nanny of a peacock, who is like a combination of a guardian and an older brother to a kitten, who is the adoptive younger sister of your son through their mutual adoptive father…and things just get even more complicated when we add Shifu and the other warriors into the mix. So who says that our young Dragon Warrior can't have three parents?"

"This is bigger than just my husband, Min Yun," murmured Biming quietly. "He…he's the leader of a panda _village_. An entire village. Who knows how many other members of my family might have survived the raid? My sister? My cousins? Do I have any nieces or nephews that I've never met before? I just don't know…"

Her shoulders deflated, and it was plain to see that she was reminiscing with a visual combination of wistfulness and pain, thinking of the husband she hadn't seen in twenty-four years, of her own people whom she had unwillingly left behind. The soothsayer softened, doddering forward to grip her friend's paw comfortingly. "That's precisely why you need to tell your son, Biming. This is something that he needs to know. You too aren't the last of your kind, and it's only fair for him to hear that."

"I suppose it is," answered Biming quietly, not looking up.

"Besides, I imagine that you'll probably be going to visit your husband now that you know about this, isn't that right?"

"I don't know." The panda woman massaged her temples as if that would alleviate her stress. "Zeng says that the village is very far away. And Cai and I haven't discussed that yet, we've had so many other things to catch up on…"

"Try not to worry about it too much." The soothsayer stepped back, tilting up her bearded chin confidently. "I know that you'll make the right choice. You've made it this far, after all."

"That's true…" Biming cleared her throat pointedly. "In the meantime, I'd appreciate it if you would keep this between us. Don't mention it to anyone, especially not my son or Mr. Ping…or Shen, for that matter," she added after a pause.

The soothsayer chuckled wryly. "Oh, I'd love to see the colors Shen would turn if he knew about this…"

"Well, for now, you're just going to have to use your imagination."

…

The following morning, as the sun was just beginning to make its graceful arc over the Valley of Peace, Lanying Xifeng was doing her breathing exercises.

Shen had taught them to her on the way here from Gongmen City. They were breathing methods used to steady one's heartbeat and respiratory rate, chiefly designed for kung fu masters trying to enter a meditative state, but he had figured that they might also help her to overcome two of her most common panic symptoms. She wasn't surprised that he was worried about that. After all, just a few days ago he'd seen her lose control, when her faulty fight-or-flight response had suddenly decided to work correctly and set off one of the worst panic attacks of her life. She still hadn't completely recovered from it; she knew that it would probably take weeks before the last traces of anxiety has slithered away from her mind, releasing their tendrils for the time being, but still lurking beneath the surface and ready to spring on her at any time.

She wondered if it was more helpful or hurtful that she'd had so much change to deal with since her panic attack. Solidifying her engagement to Shen, leaving her birth home behind, coming here…and preparing to meet her future husband's family. Now that was a nerve-wracking concept if nothing else was. And that was probably also why she'd started getting shakes and heart palpitations shortly after waking up this morning. So she sat on her bed, her eyes scrunched shut, slowly easing each breath in and out of her lungs.

Lanying had groomed herself carefully today, making sure that she looked more presentable than ever. This was no easy feat, since most of her clothes were either covered in paint or misshapen and threadbare. This morning she'd donned her earth-toned breeches and shirt with gold trim, and had carefully preened her multicolored plumage until every feather reluctantly agreed to lie flat. The four long head feathers that made up her partial crest were brushed back in sweeping curves, quivering slightly as they hovered over her neck.

Just as she felt that she was beginning to calm down, someone rapped on the door to her room, and she jumped. Her eyelids snapped open.

"Um, come in," she called.

The door slid aside to reveal the familiar white feathers and gray cotton robes of her fiancée. Shen gave her a reassuring smile. "Good morning, Lanying."

"Morning," Lanying echoed. As she stood up, she was suddenly very self-conscious about the state of her room. Shen had rented it out for her last night when they'd arrived in the Valley, since she needed a place to stay until they got married and bought or built a house (and Master Shifu was getting stricter on allowing people to room in the Jade Palace, since so many people lived there now). While it was located in one of the finest travelers' houses in the village, it was empty and bare, save the unpacked crates of her personal possession and an open carton of clothing that seemed to be erupting its contents onto the floor. While her old room in her parents' house hadn't exactly been the embodiment of cleanliness, she had tried to keep it as an organized mess…and it was always resplendent with artwork, the shoddy paintjob on the walls layered over with her brilliantly-colored paintings. That was what Shen was used to seeing from her, not this plainness.

Then again, maybe she was being silly. He knew that she hadn't even been here for a full day and wouldn't have had time to decorate, after all.

"Are you ready to go?" he asked.

"As I'll ever be." Lanying looked down at her clothes doubtfully. "Do you think I should have worn something more…formal?"

"Of course not. You look lovely, as always."

Lanying managed to smile.

"Come on now, don't be nervous." Shen stepped towards her and gently took her wing. She tensed a bit, still unused to being touched by another person. "I explained everything to them last night. They're all very interested to meet you."

"You explained everything…oh, no, so they know that I have panic attacks!" Lanying's feathers flattened in discouragement. "Now they're going to be prejudiced against me, just like everyone else is…"

"Lanying, that's enough," Shen interrupted firmly. "Trust me, I don't think that any of them are going to think you're strange just because you have panic attacks. None of us are exactly normal, you know. Besides, they managed to accept me, and I tried to kill them! I don't think you have very much to worry about at all."

"I hope you're right…"

Lanying hated to be so negative, but twenty-one years of disappointment had turned expecting the worst into her base nature. She reminded herself that today was the day that she'd been waiting for all her life: she had escaped from her parents at last, and now she was walking through a small town where her fear of crowds couldn't get to her, while the man she cared about more than anything in the world strode alongside her. As he led her through the still-sleeping Valley of Peace, she resolved to get through this for him if for no other reason. After all, it was very important for her to meet her future husband's family.

But why did his family have to have so many legendary warriors in it? It made things so much more complicated.

But her spirits lifted when the morning haze began to part, and Shen lifted a wing to point to the Jade Palace, nestled in the high stone outcroppings above the village. The rays of sunlight seemed somehow new and refreshed as they reached down to the ornate building, which gleamed like a jewel balanced at the top of the mountain. Between the warm light slanting down and the dazzling tones of the cliffs and vegetation…

"I'm going to have to paint that," breathed Lanying, and Shen smiled.

It was a long hike up, and she wasn't exactly in shape (being shut up in her room didn't provide ample opportunity for exercise), but the walk felt overall crisp and refreshing, like splashing cool water on your face after waking up in the morning. Shen showed her how to climb up on some of the tallest boulders along the way and jump off, allowing the two peafowl to glide over short sections of the stairs. She wasn't too keen on gliding at first, but after a while she started to get the hang of it.

When they reached the top of the steps, the introductions began before they had even entered the palace.

A gangly-legged bird and a primate with golden fur were sparring outside of a high-ceilinged, comparatively plain building. That must have been Master Crane and Master Monkey. They turned around when they heard footsteps, and Monkey began to grin. "Hey, Crane, there's Shen's girlfriend!" he exclaimed, pointing a leathery black finger in Lanying's direction. "You were wrong – she's real after all!"

Crane tipped his hat downwards to cover his face, while Monkey howled with laughter. Lanying flushed with an uneasy mixture of embarrassment and confusion. "That's Master Crane and Master Monkey. Just ignore them," Shen muttered in her ear. "That's what I do."

With that, he led her inside.

They hadn't walked ten steps before being halted by a small, furry creature carrying a staff more than twice his size. His tail showed a hint of ringlets where it poked out from under his shawl, and Lanying was able to identify him as a red panda. Her breath hitched; this must have been Master Shifu, the grandmaster of the palace. His eyebrows furrowed suspiciously as he looked her over. "Shen, who is this?" he demanded.

"This is Lanying Xifeng, sir," answered Shen carefully. Lanying was a bit surprised, since she'd never heard Shen call anybody "sir" before, but apparently he wanted to stay on Shifu's good side at all times. "My fiancée. I told you she'd be coming to visit yesterday…"

"Ah, that's right." Shifu seemed satisfied, though he shut his eyes thoughtfully. "I suppose you and I will have to discuss arrangements later?"

"She's not going to be living at the Palace, Master Shifu."

"No? What about after the two of you are married?"

"I was planning to purchase a house for us. It would be more…proper for a married couple."

Shifu nodded slowly. "Fair enough. But we'll still need to discuss it."

"Yes, sir."

The elderly red panda turned to Lanying, giving her a smile and a slight nod. "I'm pleased to meet you, Miss Xifeng. Shen has told us about you, and I have no doubt that you are pure of heart. You are welcome as a visitor to the Jade Palace any time you like. At your future husband's discretion, of course."

"Thank you…sir," she added after a moment's consideration.

With that, Shifu was gone. And it wasn't that he walked past them or turned around and went the other way…he simply vanished. Lanying, startled, turned to Shen for an explanation. He shrugged. "What can I say? Master Shifu does that sometimes."

Next, they headed to the kitchen.

Breakfast seemed to be over already – apparently they ate early here – and an older panda lady was stacking the dishes on the counter. She had a gray bun tied neatly between her ears and beautiful jade green eyes.

"Excuse me, Lady Biming," said Shen, stepping forward, and Lanying made a small noise of understanding in the back of her throat. Shen had already told her about Lady Biming, the panda who had been his healer when he was a child and saved the soothsayer when he was a teenager. He'd even told the story of their journey to find her and how she'd come to be living at the Jade Palace, but Lanying didn't know if she was truly comfortable with him or not.

The answer to this came quickly when Biming turned around and said, "Hmm? What is it, love…oh." Her eyes widened in curiosity at the sight of Lanying. "Is this your fiancée?"

"Yes." Shen motioned for Lanying to come forward. "Lady Biming, this is Lanying Xifeng. Lanying, this is Lady Biming."

"Biming Baojia," Biming clarified, shaking the anxious peahen's hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Pleasure to meet you too, Lady Biming," Lanying forced out. This was why she'd been so edgy this morning: not because she was afraid that Shen's adoptive family would be cruel, but because she simply didn't know the right way to behave when other people were around. She knew the bare bones of politeness, but how was she supposed to speak? To dress? To hold up her head? She didn't know, and once again, she cursed her parents for forcing her to be a recluse.

"You seem to have caught Shen's fancy," continued Biming, and she winked. "Quite an accomplishment, that. I've known him for his entire life and he's never shown the slightest interest in girls. But I am happy for you…both of you. You should know, Miss Xifeng, that Shen is the most stubborn child I've ever met, but he's devoted to a fault. You could do no better there."

"Lady Biming," Shen complained, as if she were a great-aunt who was pinching his cheeks and telling him how cute he was.

Biming laughed. "Just telling it like it is, dear. Well, if you two are going on a grand tour of the palace, don't let me keep you!"

Shen brought Lanying back out into the hall. "She's a nice lady," he said. "Really. But she's not shy at all. I suppose that might be intimidating for someone like you."

Lanying shrugged uncomfortably. "Don't start worrying about what 'someone like me' finds preferable, because then we'll be here all day."

He squeezed her hand slightly. "I'm going to go find Kurisu, all right? Just stay here for a moment. I'll be right back."

She watched him go, and a pang of abandonment started up in her chest, which she did her best to suppress. That was another thing that had evolved since she was five years old and had her first panic attack. She'd never had someone to be there for her, so whenever she did get attached to someone, she wanted to cling to them all the time. But even though she didn't know much about social norms, she knew that it wouldn't do her any good to clutch to Shen's robes like a lost child. And he wasn't about to abandon her, anyway.

He'd said he'd never abandon her…

Two female voices echoed down the hall, and Lanying flinched, then turned around slowly. A tiger and a snake were progressing towards her at a leisurely pace, discussing something that was probably related to their training. Master Tigress and Master Viper, she thought. They took no notice of her at first, but when they did, they both stopped in their tracks and stared. Lanying stared, too, until the silence felt heavy enough to crush them beneath its bulk. None of them dared to say anything.

It was Viper who finally spoke up. "Hi," she said. "Are you Shen's new fiancée?"

"Yes," replied Lanying.

"Nice to meet you." Viper slithered up to the peahen. "I'm Master Viper, but you can just call me Viper."

"Lanying Xifeng," responded Lanying automatically. "And…you can just call me Lanying."

For several long moments after that, no words were exchanged.

Then Master Tigress asked, point blank, "Have you ever actually had a conversation with another person before?" There was nothing cruel in the way she said it. She only sounded coolly intrigued, having noted that the newcomer's social reflexes were not quite at a normal level.

Lanying's violet eyes dropped to the ground. "No, not really," she answered softly.

"Hey, guys, what's going on?" The two warrior women blinked in surprise, then stepped to one side to make room for the panda who had squeezed into the hall. "Why are we all crowding in the hallway like this?" continued the panda. "And who's – oh, wait, I bet I know who you are! You're that Lanying Xifeng lady! Shen's girlfriend from Gongmen City, right?"

"Fiancée, actually," Lanying corrected automatically, her eyes widening as she realized that she must be looking at the legendary Dragon Warrior. "You…you know my name?"

"Sure I do." He shrugged, as if it was simply common knowledge. "Shen was talking about you yesterday, and I have a good memory for names."

"Well, this is certainly an honor…Dragon Warrior." Lanying performed a tremulous curtsy. Viper giggled, for some reason.

Po waved a paw in the air dismissively. "I don't go by all that honorific stuff. Just call me Po, okay?"

"Of course…Po." Lanying's eyes widened even further, and the white patches around them made them look all the larger.

Shen returned at that moment, though fortunately he came from the other side of the hall and didn't get caught up in the rapidly forming traffic jam. "Kurisu refuses to come out of her room," he announced, before stopping in his tracks. "It's crowded over here, isn't it?"

Tigress's ear twitched. "We just happened to run into your fiancée."

"Ah." Shen looked less than intimidated. "Well, she's not a museum exhibit, so move along, everyone."

Tigress and Viper exchanged a glance and hurried on their way, while Po asked, "So, my sister's locked herself in her room again, huh?"

"Sister?" repeated Lanying.

"Yes, she has," sighed Shen. "I tried to coax her out, and so did Nana. No result."

"Well, you know how she gets."

Shen rolled his eyes. "I certainly do."

"Dad says it's 'cause she's a cat. Cats are really territorial, and they hate change. Now, uh, if you guys will just excuse me for a second…"

Shen took Lanying's wing and brought her to the other side of the hallway, allowing Po to make his way into the kitchen. Once he was out of earshot, Lanying turned to her fiancée in confusion. "He's the Dragon Warrior? But he acted so…informally!"

Shen snickered. "Once you've been here for a little longer, you'll realize that 'informal' doesn't make up the half of it."

…

Po was ravenous. He'd been engaged in a spar with Mantis that had kept him fighting long past breakfast, and when he got into the kitchen, the first thing he did was grab two of the leftover breakfast spring rolls and cram them into his mouth. He gulped them down hungrily, oblivious to everything else.

"Po, take normal-sized bites for once," scolded Lady Biming.

Okay, maybe not _everything_ else. He obediently bit off a palatable chunk of his next spring roll, knowing from experience that there was no point in going against his mother.

Why would he even _want_ to go against his mother, anyway? She was way too nice, and the last thing he'd ever want to do was disappoint her. All she ever needed to do was flash him her disapproving look (or her 'mom look,' as she called it) and he'd feel like he'd been punished a thousand times over, like a cub with his hand stuck in the cookie jar for the millionth time.

He noticed that today, she was seated at the table with a scroll unfurled in front of her. That was odd; he'd never known her to do much reading. He swallowed his food and asked, "Hey, Mom, what's that?"

Biming glanced up, flinching as if someone had just threatened to throw something at her. "What? Oh, it's, er…it's a letter."

"Who's it from?"

"Nobody," she answered quickly, and snapped the scroll shut.

"…nobody?" he repeated, his brows arching upwards. "You're getting letters from, like, someone who's literally named _nobody_?"

"As far as you know," responded Biming, and she refused to say any more about it.

* * *

_A/N - Eep, sorry for the hiatus! I have about a billion projects going at once, so that's the reason why. Not because of you guys. You guys are awesome with your awesome reviews and all...(hint, hint)_

_Also...WAIT A MINUTE, I'M A TVTROPES RECOMMENDED AUTHOR FOR KFP? ASDFGHJKL WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN?_


	4. Part 1 Chapter 3

_A/N - Hey, everyone! I've been gone for quite a while, haven't I? I started losing interest in KFP, so I decided to take a much-needed hiatus to do other things (it had nothing to do with you guys; you guys are great). Now I'm fully recharged, so I'm going to start easing myself back into this fanfic thing. Please note that I won't update as frequently at first, partly because I'm just taking it slow right now, but mostly because I'm at an animation pre-college program right now and I'm very busy drawing flour sacks and meeting Pixar employees and stuff._

_Also...the site got a bit of a makeover while I was gone, didn't it? I guess I'd better get to designing a cover for this story..._

* * *

_**The Path Not Taken**_

**Part I: The Mysterious Nobody**

_Chapter 3: Business_

Shen was dismayed to find that he had been away from home long enough to disorient him significantly. Over the next few days, he woke up more than once in the middle of the night to a moment of brief bewilderment, wondering for an instant why he wasn't in his borrowed bed mat in the bunk house, and he was constantly readjusting the angles of items in his bedroom because they didn't look right to him. But overall, it was nice to be back. He had some personal space again, people didn't stare at him in horror whenever he passed by, and he was happy to see that his patchwork family was just as comfortable with him as they had ever been…well, with one exception.

He had hardly seen Kurisu since his return. She had been sulking in her room most of the time, and so far, no one had been able to coax her out. It was all because of Lanying, of course. Shen could sort of understand that she wasn't thrilled about the idea of competing with someone else for his affections, but didn't she understand that the love he felt for Lanying was a completely different emotion than his attachment to Kurisu? He wouldn't expect an eleven-year-old to comprehend the finer points of romantic relationships, but still…

Lanying was having some difficulty adjusting as well, which was understandable. After all, she'd lived in Gongmen City for her entire life, and even though she hadn't exactly liked it there, suddenly moving somewhere else was still a hard transition to make. For the most part, Shen thought that she was doing exceptionally well. He checked in on her frequently, tried to get her to socialize a bit, helped her personalize her room, and talked her through any problems that she might be having. She was opening up to him more and more now, and it seemed to be doing wonders for her anxiety issues, because she was much brighter and calmer all the time and hadn't had a single panic attack since their departure from Gongmen.

One ordinary morning, less than a week after his return, he was sitting at the kitchen table and drinking his usual cup of sweet tea, lounging languidly as the other warriors conversed and ate their breakfasts around him. Just as Master Shifu looked as if he was ready to send everyone into the training hall, Zeng scrambled into the room. The messenger goose was panting and flustered, which was not an out of the ordinary occurrence at all.

"Oh, Zeng," said Master Shifu, rather unimpressed by the entrance. He directed his gaze at the two scrolls tucked under the servant's wing. "What have you got there?"

"I-it's the morning mail, Master Shifu," Zeng managed. "There's a letter here from Master Sheep, the head of Yang Village…"

Shifu frowned. "I certainly hope that he is all right. May I see the letter?"

"It's not for you, sir. It's for Master Shen."

Shen, who had been letting his thoughts wander between how to plan his upcoming wedding and how to reconcile with Kurisu, suddenly snapped to attention. "Excuse me?"

"For _Master Shen_?" repeated Master Shifu incredulously, shooting the peacock a suspicious stare. Many of the other warriors were also looking at him oddly.

Shen held up his hands defensively. "Look, I have no idea why I would be receiving a letter from Master Sheep, all right? I don't even know him!"

The soothsayer was unperturbed by this. "It can't be anything bad," she declared confidently. "After all, Shen hasn't been anywhere near Yang Village during the past several weeks, so he wouldn't have had any opportunity to cause trouble there. Xun and I can attest to that."

"And I wouldn't have caused trouble there even if I'd been in the area," Shen added, unable to keep himself from rolling his eyes just a little. Of course, he _usually_ felt that he was accepted here, but there were still moments like this when everyone was ready to jump down his throat.

"Don't assume it's something bad," contributed Lady Biming, who was also quite calm as she stood up and reached for the teapot. "Just open it, Shen. Tell us all what it says."

Zeng waddled over and handed Shen the scroll case, and he unfurled the message warily, nervous that it might hold some unfair accusation or false conviction. He scanned the letter once, then read it over again, just to make sure that he had interpreted the words correctly…

"…well?" Xun prompted, his ears perking up. "What does it say?"

"'Dear Master Shen," Shen read, clearly and deliberately. "As you may already know, I am responsible for a small town called Yang Village. Recently, the inhabitants have experienced troubles with bandits and ruffians who see us as an easy target. I have decided to improve the village's defenses, and I was referred to you by my good friends Master Storming Ox and Master Croc, who spoke highly of your skill in firearms design and had many good things to say about your recent work in Gongmen City. I would be most honored if you would agree to lend your services to my village.'"

"…oh, you have got to be _kidding_ me!" exclaimed Po.

The soothsayer smiled broadly. "You see, Shen? I told you that accepting that assignment in Gongmen City would lead to good things!"

"All I can say is, you owe Ox and Croc, big time," remarked Xun, but he was grinning. "Seriously, though, I'm happy for you."

"That's not even all." Shen cleared his throat and began to read again. "'If you accept, you will receive generous payment for your troubles. I will gladly pay you the sum of…'" His eyes widened as he fully processed the number written near the bottom of the scroll. "Wait, there's no way that can be the real price!"

"Let me see," said Lady Biming. She peered over Shen's shoulder, then frowned, her brow creasing in disbelief. "That's a higher salary than I've ever been paid, even when I was working for the Royal Peacocks!"

Master Shifu cleared his throat as he appeared out of nowhere nearby. "It certainly is…_generous_ of Master Sheep to make you such an offer," he commented upon seeing the amount in question.

Shen felt the rest of the Furious Five crowding in behind him, and he fought the impulse to push them back as they all contributed their opinions.

"Generous? That's just _obscene_!" proclaimed Mantis.

"What are you even going to do with all of that money?" asked Monkey.

Tigress was less than happy about this. "So, now respected masters are willing to give you huge amounts of money to create duplicates of the weapons that you tried to obliterate kung fu with?"

Shen couldn't help but smirk at her. "No one makes cannons quite like I do."

"Are you going to accept the job, Shen?" inquired Viper.

"I have every intention of doing so." He rolled the letter neatly and slipped it back into its scroll case. "I'll just have to make arrangements with Master Sheep about when he wants me to come up to Yang Village. I'm not planning to go anywhere in the near future – after all, the Winter Feast is coming up soon, and I wouldn't miss it for anything."

"And I wouldn't be apt to allow you to," said Master Shifu. "As a master, it is your duty to attend the Winter Feast…and you also promised to create a fireworks display for us this year."

Shen nodded. During his first year celebrating the Winter Festival at the Jade Palace, Shifu hadn't thought it wise to draw attention to Shen's arrival by having him concoct any fireworks. The peacock had been meant to do a display last year, but it had been snowed out at the last moment, and all of his rockets and gunpowder had been reduced to a soggy, unusable mess. This would be the first year that he'd really be able to show off his skills, weather permitting, of course.

"Before I forget," Zeng piped up nervously, "I have a letter for you, too, Lady Biming. It's from – "

"I know who it's from," Biming cut him off quickly, and her breath seemed to hitch slightly. She quickly grabbed the scroll out of his hand without waiting for him to hand it to her.

Shen quirked an eyebrow, unused to seeing Lady Biming break her normal casual attitude. And who would she be receiving letters from, anyway?

"Hey, I bet I know who it's from," declared Po. "It's from _Nobody _again, right?"

"Yes, son." Biming rolled her eyes, but she still seemed tense. "As far as you know."

Po shook his head in bewilderment. "I just don't get it. How come this Nobody guy keeps sending you letters, anyway? Is he your boyfriend or something?"

She only smiled weakly.

…

"Kurisu, you have to come out of there sometime."

"No!"

"If you don't, I'll tell everyone else to stop bringing you your meals, and we'll starve you out!"

"Go away!"

Shen sighed in exasperation. Even with the side of his head pressed against the thin door to Kurisu's room, her voice sounded muffled to him, and he imagined that she was probably hiding beneath a mound of blankets on her bed and glaring spitefully in his direction. Well, he'd just about had it with the way she was acting. If everyone else was just going to pander to her obduracy, then he'd take the responsibility for her himself.

"Kurisu," he threatened, "you'd better get out here on the count of three, or else I'll see to it that you'll be cleaning the training hall for a month."

He heard her growl. "You wouldn't dare, ugly chicken!"

His crest bristled. "Come out on the count of three, young lady!"

She gave a low, barely audible hiss; Kurisu hated getting the "young lady" card from anybody, but it was especially irritating to her when Shen did it. Still, he stood by his word, and began to count off deliberately. "One…two…"

Just as he opened his beak to say "three" the door was thrown open in his face, making him stumble, and a grayish-blue blur took off running down the hall. Shen only needed a split second to regain his balance before charging after her. She was quite fast – the kitten had been a little furry bundle of energy for as long as he'd known her – but he was a trained martial arts master, and speed just so happened to be one of his specialties. She hadn't even reached the end of the hall before she felt Shen's wings wrapping around her, and she kicked and squirmed in his grasp, howling, "Let me GO!"

"I don't think so," contradicted Shen crossly. "I wanted to talk to you about – enough with the biting!" he snapped, feeling her little teeth tugging on one of his whiskers. "I've been home for almost a week now, and I've barely seen you at all. Why have you been hiding in your room this whole time?"

"You don't need me anymore!" spat Kurisu, her ears flattening against her head. "Now that you have…_her_!"

"You mean Lanying." Shen exhaled roughly. "I thought that's what this was about. Let's talk about it, all right?"

"There's nothing to talk about!" She began squirming in his arms again. "You went to Gongmen City, you found some peacock girl there, and now you're only gonna want to spend time with her. The end."

"No, not the end," he corrected her, tilting up her chin so that he could meet her offended blue eyes . "And the corrected term for a lady peafowl is a _peahen_, by the way. Only the males are called peacocks."

Kurisu's whiskers lifted slightly. "That's stupid," she said.

Shen smiled. "It is a bit confusing, isn't it? But that's not what we need to talk about. You know how much I care about you, Kurisu…"

She looked down and nodded, but with more than a hint of reluctance.

"Oh, don't be that way. I wouldn't even be here right now if it wasn't for you. No one could ever take your place." He nudged her head up with the tip of his beak. "What I feel for Lanying is completely different from what I feel for you. She'll never replace you."

"But what if you get so busy doing things with her that you don't have time for me anymore?" Kurisu asked worriedly. "We always do everything together! Ever since you got back, you've been all weird and spacey, and I keep being afraid that you won't care about me now!"

"That's quite enough," said Shen firmly. "I'll never toss you aside, Kurisu, you know that. I suffered enough neglect at the hands of my own parents; I would never do that to anyone else."

Her ears lifted. "I hadn't thought of that…"

"Why don't we do something together, Kurisu, to make up for the past few days?" he suggested. "Just you and me. I can forgo visiting Lanying for one day…"

"Can we go to the training hall and have sparring matches and play point-tag?" she asked hopefully.

"I don't see why not."

"Yaaaay!" Before he had the chance to blink, she leapt out of his grasp and began hopping excitedly around his feet, her hyperactive personality returning. "Let's go, let's go, let's go! This is gonna be the best day ever!"

"There's just one thing that I want you to do for me, Kurisu."

She skidded to a stop, tilting her head curiously. "What?"

"I want you to come with me to meet Lanying tomorrow."

She made a face.

Shen rolled his eyes. "Don't be so quick to assume the worst. You might like her! And besides, you're both going to be in the same family now, so it would only be proper that I introduce you."

"Hmm…" She wrinkled up her nose, but didn't object any further. "Well, she'd better treat you right! Because if she ends up hurting you, then I'm going to hunt her down and find her and kick her but all the way back to Gongmen City! That'll show her!"

"Trust me, itty bitty kitty: Lanying would never do that."

…

After everyone had filed out of the kitchen to attend to their daily business, Lady Biming was beginning to clean up the breakfast dishes as she always did when Master Shifu approached her. "Lady Biming," he stated, tucking his hands inside his sleeves. "I'd like to have a word with you."

Biming hastily placed a stack of plates on the counter and turned to face the grandmaster. "If this is about the letter I received this morning, Master Shifu, then I'm afraid that I'm going to have to respectfully – "

He held up a paw to cut her off. "No, no, it's nothing like that. Your letters are your own personal business; I trust you enough not to intrude."

"Oh…well." Relief swept through her, but she was careful not to show it with anything other than a deep breath. "What's wrong, then?"

"Nothing is wrong." He steepled his fingers sagely. "You have been the official healer of the Jade Palace for quite some time – in fact, you've managed to hold the position down longer than anyone else. This is quite impressive. Even back in Master Oogway's day, most physicians would become fed up with the work load after a mere few months. The healer before you lasted only four weeks before she ran off to get married."

"I wouldn't leave this place, Master Shifu," replied Biming. "It's my home now, and besides, my son lives here as well."

"Still, it would be very easy for you to take up residence in the Valley without having to work."

She shrugged nonchalantly; honestly, the thought of retiring had never really occurred to her. "I don't do this because I have to. I do it because I feel obligated to help people."

Shifu nodded approvingly. "You've been living here for over a year now, and you've made yourself quite helpful during that time, in every way. Before your arrival, I often felt that it was a struggle to keep things running smoothly here while also watching over the Valley…" The corner of his mouth twitches wryly. "Especially when more and more people started moving in. But you seem to have a remarkable gift for getting everyone in order."

Biming laughed. "What can I say? You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. If you're nice to people, then they'll be less inclined to give you trouble later on."

"That's one thing that I've never been good at."

She smirked. "Well, I'm flattered that you think I've been so useful, Master Shifu. But somehow I doubt that you'd be complimenting me like this unless it was leading up to something else. What's going on?"

"It's nothing bad…or at least, I certainly hope that it won't be perceived as bad." He stepped forward slightly. "As the Grandmaster of the Jade Palace, my duty is to protect the Valley of peace, but it is also to maintain order here. Recently I've noticed that the behavior of certain members of the staff has begun to…slip, let's say. I've done my best to reconcile the situation, but since I am busier than ever nowadays, I fear that I cannot remedy it completely. So I have a proposition for you. Would you consider allowing yourself to be promoted to the head of all servants here at the Jade Palace?"

Biming blinked. "Excuse me? You want _me_ to be the head of the servants?"

"If it's not too much to ask, then yes. I can't think of anyone else who would be better for the position. I understand that it will certainly be a lot of work, especially now, with the Winter Feast coming up and having a higher expected attendance than ever before…"

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that, Master Shifu," she interrupted politely. "I enjoy being busy. I'm just a bit surprised, since I never expected to be offered a promotion…but I'll certainly do the best I can." To emphasize her words, she bowed slightly at the waist, hopefully conveying her respect to the grandmaster.

He bowed back. "Thank you very much, Lady Biming. Your help is greatly appreciated." He paused, then cracked a slight smile. "It seems to me that you have the same determination and good intentions as your son…but without the tendency to bungle everything on your first try."

Biming chuckled, then declared with a wink, "Well, he doesn't get that from _my_ side of the family!"


	5. Part 1 Chapter 4

_**The Path Not Taken**_

**Part I: The Mysterious Nobody**

_Chapter 4: Waiting game_

Biming held off on reading her letter until after she had finished clearing the breakfast dishes. She was due to be announced to the staff as the new head of servants later that afternoon, so in the few minutes that she had to herself, she slipped discreetly into her bedroom and made sure that the door was firmly shut. After checking and double-checking to make sure that no one else was around, she cautiously unfurled the scroll that she had received earlier that morning:

_My dearest wife,_

_I swear to the gods that every time Tung delivers another message from you, my surprise never lessens. Am I the only one who feels that this is like a dream, being able to correspond so frequently after so many years? I truly hope that I'll be able to see you again soon, though as discouraging as it is, I must admit that you were right about what you said in your last letter. The cost of supplies and especially of hiring an escort to go back and forth from here to the Valley of Peace would indeed be quite steep, and unattainable for both of us at this time. Still, I'm sure that we'll be able to work something out. Now that we in Fai Dong Valley know for sure that we have nothing to fear from Lord Shen, we've been trying to establish trade with the settlements closest to us. Hopefully I will be able to set aside a small portion of the revenue from the exchanges and begin saving up to come and visit._

_By the way, how is our son? You haven't mentioned him much since you told me that he was the Dragon Warrior. I hope that he's not upset with me because I was absent for so long. Please give him my warmest regards and tell him that I couldn't be more proud of him._

_Take care of yourself, and write back soon. I am, etc._

Biming heaved a sigh and placed the scroll on her dresser. She didn't want to keep lying, not to her husband and not to her son…but then again, it wasn't really 'lying,' she corrected herself. There were just a few things that she wasn't telling them…things that they probably needed to know.

She should have told Po weeks ago that his biological father was alive, but she hadn't, although now he had managed to figure out that she was indeed receiving letters from some mystery sender. She could imagine from here what would happen every time she received another message, having to weather her son's comments of "is Nobody your boyfriend or something" without ever betraying her guilt. And that wasn't even mentioning the fact that she hadn't told Cai that his survival was a secret yet, so none of the communications he had tried to put out to their son had actually passed Biming's lips. Oh, and then there was the panda village, Fai Dong Valley, which just added a whole other layer of complications to the situation.

And there was also Shen. Good gods, she couldn't even bear to think about how Shen factored into this equation as of yet.

She allowed herself to sigh and shut her eyes for a moment, calling up blurry memories of her husband's face. They'd known each other from earliest childhood, although they weren't originally intended to be married. Biming had been engaged to someone else from birth, but she'd fallen into disfavor with the groom-to-be after she obtained her job as the healer to the Royal Peacocks. When forced to choose between her job and her marriage, she'd picked her job, and it had only been later that Cai had proposed to her. And that was why the two of them had settled down and started a family so late…

Biming almost smiled, but the thought of what had become of that family now jolted her back into the present, and she opened her eyes.

Delaying the inevitable truth wasn't going to make things get any better, she knew that much. Po had the right to know about Cai, and vice versa. But if she said anything, it would be so incredibly easy for her to ruin everything all at once. This was no normal family here, and the familial structure was very tenuous and fragile, already wobbling slightly from the addition of Lanying Xifeng. Burdening it with the knowledge of an entire panda village might cause the whole thing to fall to pieces, and Biming wasn't about to let that happen. This family was still hers, after all. But if anything would lead to her undoing, it would probably be her own selfishness, because her desire to see Cai again was stronger than she could put into words…

So she strode over to her dresser, shut today's scroll in the top drawer along with its previous companions, and promised herself something.

She would save the salary she received from her new job as the head of staff and put it towards travel supplies and escort to Fai Dong. As soon as she had enough money, she would tell Po the truth, and the two of them would go together. It wasn't a perfect plan, but it would give her some peace of mind knowing that her deception now had a deadline.

Without even glancing over her shoulder at the place where her secret was quietly fermenting, she lifted her chin and strode out of the room, ready to return to her regular life once again.

…

After being formally presented to the staff as their new boss (and weathering through many dubious stares), Biming made her informal announcements to the other Jade Palace residents about her new promotions. She was given the usual assortment of polite congratulations, along with one rather telling comment from her son.

"So Master Shifu listened to me after all!" Po declared. "When I first told him that I thought you should be the head of servants, he looked at me like I was crazy."

Biming quirked an eyebrow. "_You_ were the one who suggested it to him?"

"Uh, yeah," he answered, as if surprised that she hadn't realized that before. "We were all kind of thinking it, since, y'know, you always do such a great job of taking care of stuff around here anyway. And Master Shifu is always complaining that he has too much to do without having to worry about the servants, so I told him that maybe he should give you the job, but he made me think that it was a bad idea. But hey, he asked you anyway, so I guess it wasn't!"

She smiled and dipped her head slightly, caught on the uneasy threshold of being flattered and feeling even guiltier. Ever since the incident that had destroyed her village, hardly a day had passed where she didn't wonder if she was an inadequate mother in some respect, but no one ever seemed to notice this – her son least of all. Sometimes his unwavering affection towards her made her want to laugh, and other times it made her want to cry. Right now she was leaning towards the latter option, but she only replied teasingly, "Oh, so you're trying to make more work for your old mama?"

Po's ears dipped back immediately. "Well, if you really feel that way, then you don't have to…" It took him several more seconds before he realized that she was kidding, and when he did, he grinned sheepishly. "Oh. Yeah, well, what can I say? You're awesome. I can't think of anyone else who would do a better job."

Biming felt herself flushing, and her eyes dropped to the floor. "Little jade," she said quickly, using her special term of endearment for him. "You don't have to flatter me like that…"

"I'm not trying to flatter you. I'm just speaking the truth!" he insisted. "And I really hope that it's not too much work for you. I thought it would be a good thing to do, since you've already done so much for me."

She hoped that her emotions didn't betray themselves on her face. "You…don't ever have to worry about me, Po. I'm perfectly happy now," she answered carefully. All right, it was _sort of_ a lie, but she was doing far more misleading things at the moment.

"Well, okay, if you say so." Po laughed. "I'd better get back to training now, okay? See you later!"

"See you later, little jade," Biming repeated, but her voice was probably too soft now for him to hear, and he had already taken off in the direction of the training hall. In her mind, she was apologizing to him tenfold for her indirect deception of him. Somehow she could already tell that there would be hell to pay when he finally learned the truth about her letters. She sighed and lifted her eyes to the ceiling, as if seeking help from some invisible gods who might be able to tell her how she could resolve this problem without hurting her son.

…

Late the next morning, Shen and Lanying were just reaching the top of the thousand steps for Lanying's second visit to the Jade Palace. The weather had gotten quite chilly lately, so the peahen had tucked her yellow-and-orange scarf around her neck. Shen thought that it provided for ravishing contrast against the natural colors of her plumage.

"So, I've noticed that you've been much less anxious since we first came here," he began. "You haven't had a single panic attack, is that right?"

She bobbed her head. "I haven't had one since that last little…meltdown…in Gongmen City." Of course, the attack she'd had after being menaced by Lady Xuilan's villainous mute bodyguard Ming was hardly a very "little" one, but Shen understood that she preferred not think about that anymore.

"Who knows? Perhaps you'll stop having them altogether," he remarked hopefully.

Lanying gazed at him reproachfully. "Don't be so optimistic. Just because I have this condition doesn't mean that I have panic attacks on a regular weekly basis. In fact, the longest time I've ever gone without having anxiety issues is seven months."

"Seven months?" he repeated, and cleared his throat. "Did you think that you'd been cured during that stretch of time?"

She shrugged and averted her eyes. "Not really. I've long since learned not to get my hopes up."

"Come on, now, don't be like that…" He reached out and tilted up her chin so that she was facing him. "You're here with me now. Things will be different. You have a lot to look forward to, I promise…"

"I still haven't managed to find a job," she pointed out. "Not one that pertains to my skills, anyway. And we have the wedding to start thinking about, and we're going to need to build a house, and there's so many preparations to be done, and – "

"Don't worry about any of that," he interrupted dismissively. "I have a new and rather high-paying task lined up for me, so I'll be able to support you for as long as you need it. Soon I'll have more than enough money to pay for our wedding. And besides, there's no great rush to get married, is there?"

"If we hold off for too long, my parents are going to start wondering what we're waiting for."

"Oh, yes…your parents." Shen hesitated uncomfortably. He was none too fond of Jie and Yue Xifeng, and the thought of having them as in-laws seemed almost insulting to his real parents. He hadn't given much thought to the fact that marriage wasn't only about the union between a man and a woman: it was also binding two families together as one, with all of the complications that such a process might entail. He hadn't been in a rush to have the wedding in the first place, and now he was even less eager for it.

"Yes, and that's not to mention the fact that they're probably going to round up every relative I have for the occasion," continued Lanying, her crest flattening slightly. "All of my cousins and aunts and uncles from Java…I've never even met most of them before! What about you? I mean, I've met your _adoptive_ family, but do you have any blood relatives that I should know about?"

Shen stiffened. "No."

"No, you don't have any, or no, I shouldn't know about them?"

"I don't have any. At least, I don't think that I do." He shrugged, as if it didn't matter much to him that he was probably the last of his bloodline. "I think that when I was a child, back when my parents were still alive, I met a few distant relations…but as far as I know, they're all deceased now. Even if some of them aren't, it doesn't matter. My parents disowned me. I'm no longer a part of that family."

Her head angled towards him sharply, and her eyes widened. "They _disowned _you?"

"Of course." He frowned. "You've already heard my history. Surely you knew that."

"No one's ever described it that way before."

"Well, that's the way it was. My parents legally disowned me about twenty-five years ago, and that's the reason why no one's tried to put me back in power in Gongmen City since my reformation. Well, one of the reasons, anyway." He was relieved to see the walkway to the palace finally come into view, providing an escape from the awkward conversation. "Oh, look, here we are!"

Lanying followed behind him closely as they ascended the final step, peering over his shoulder at the yard. There was no one out and about today, since the bitter cold had prompted everyone to do their exercises indoors. Shen made a beeline for the training hall, causing her to stop up short.

"Am I allowed to go in there?" she asked nervously.

"Yes," said Shen. "Nana and Lady Biming come in all the time – they watch us spar and place bets on who will win each match."

"But they live here…I don't."

He only shrugged. "If we get in trouble for it, then I'll take the blame, although I don't think that it will be a problem. Come on, I told you that I wanted to introduce you to Kurisu today."

She followed him with trepidation as he approached the heavy double doors of the hall and pushed them open.

Inside was a flurry of what at first appeared to be pandemonium, but upon closer inspection revealed itself to be carefully controlled activity. The mechanics of the hall were all moving at full speed, and darting around or through or on top of them were seemingly all of the masters and students of the Jade Palace. Crane and Mantis were sparring atop the Jade Tortoise, Po was making a run through the Field of Fiery Death (and listening to Master Shifu as the elderly red panda shouted instructions at the top of his lungs), and nearest to the door, very close to where Shen and Lanying were standing, Master Tigress was engaged in hand-to-hand combat with a small blue-gray kitten.

"Stop blocking, Kurisu," Tigress was saying. "Tiger style has no defense, only attack."

"I can't help it! It's automatic!" whined Kurisu. "I didn't even start learning Tiger style until last week, anyway…"

"Do you want to be a master?"

"Yes'm."

"Then you have to pick a style."

"I don't think I like yours very much."

"Well, Master Shifu told me that you'll still be training with me for another week. During that time, you need to follow instructions."

"Yes'm," muttered Kurisu, pouting.

"We'll wait for them to finish," Shen murmured in Lanying's ear. "If Kurisu sees me, I'm sure that she'll…"

But it was too late, and Lanying got a firsthand look at what Kurisu would do when the kitten exclaimed, "Hey, Shen!" She quickly broke form and rushed towards the peacock…only to skid to a halt when she noticed who was at his side.

Shen bent down to her level. "Kurisu," he started, "this is Lanying. You promised me that you'd meet her today, remember?"

"Yeah, I remember," responded Kurisu, and she wrinkled her nose.

Lanying stepped forward, smiling slightly and trying to be as welcoming as possible. Over the past few days, she had already gotten a very good idea of how stubborn and possessive the young feline could be. "Hello, Kurisu. I'm glad to finally meet you. Shen has told me a lot about you…"

Kurisu's ears went flat against her head. "He _has_?"

"Nothing bad, kitten," Shen assured her quickly. "I just explained to Lanying how we met and how I happened to reform. She's from Gongmen City, remember. She knows how I used to be."

Kurisu frowned and looked up at Lanying suspiciously. "Shen's changed!" she declared. "He's not evil. You know that, right?"

"Of course I know that," said Lanying, slightly confused. "I wouldn't have agreed to marry him if I thought that he was still a madman, now would I?"

At the mention of the engagement, Kurisu's eyes immediately dropped to the scuffed wood floor. When they lifted again, they were narrowed and brimming with angry beads of moisture. "I know what you're trying to do! You want to marry Shen so that you can have him all to yourself! You don't even care about him – not as much as I do! Why don't you just go back to where you came from and leave our family alone!"

With that, she turned and bolted out of the training hall, her furry tail snapping behind her like a banner in high wind.

"Kurisu – !" Shen groaned, charging after her. Lanying took a step back, startled, and watched him go. After a full minute had passed and he showed no signs of returning, she exhaled softly, her gaze lowering.

It was another few seconds before she realized that Master Tigress was looking at her.

"I suppose that could have gone better," the South China tiger finally spoke up, folding her well-toned arms across her chest.

"You're telling me," Lanying sighed. "It seems that no matter what I do, I can't help but ruin things."

The corner of Tigress's mouth twitched. "I know how you feel."

They held each other's gaze for another long moment, and Lanying had a sudden thought. The first time she'd come up to the Jade Palace, Tigress had asked her, "_Have you ever actually had a conversation with another person before?_" At the time, Lanying hadn't known what to make of the question – she'd simply assumed that it was painfully obvious to everyone how much of a recluse she was. But now she was beginning to figure out that Tigress wasn't exactly a social person, either.

_Of course_, Lanying thought, _she wasn't trying to be mean. She just recognized the signs of introversion when she first saw me_…

"How well do you know Shen?" Lanying asked, a little bit less intimidated now (but only a little bit).

Tigress's face darkened briefly. "Master Shen and I don't get along well," she stated. "However, I can respect that fact that he's spent the past several years trying to make up for the damage he did."

"Then…you don't have anything against me because I'm engaged to him, do you?"

"Why would I?" asked Tigress, seemingly genuinely surprised by the notion.

"I don't know…I just wanted to make sure." Lanying tucked her wings behind her back uneasily. "I'd better go see where Shen and Kurisu got off to…"

"Of course. And don't worry if Kurisu isn't warming up to you yet. She's territorial."

"So I've noticed."

This time Tigress actually smiled. She punched a fist into her palm and bowed slightly. "I suppose I'll see you another time, then."

"Another time," Lanying agreed, curtsying.

Then, feeling slightly more confident in her abilities to interact with other people, she tightened her scarf and made her way out of the training hall.

* * *

_A/N - I originally didn't think that I'd have to point this out, but in case I didn't make it perfectly clear: KURISU DOES NOT HAVE A CRUSH ON SHEN. Their relationship is purely platonic and more familial than anything else. Jeez, her liking him would be almost as nonsensical and stupid as Master Tigress having a crush on Shifu when she was a teenager!_

_Also, I see that while I was away, we got ourselves some nifty comment boxes! Let's all get some good use out of those, shall we?_


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